Women's Economic Empowerment: Scope for Sida's Engagement

ForewordThe economic empowerment of women is fundamentally ahuman rights and social justice issue. But it is also importantfor poverty reduction, economic growth and human development.Policies and interventions aimed at promoting women’seconomic empowerment work towards the full recognitionand realization of women’s economic rights. The economicempowerment of women contributes to poverty reduction forall; especially in low-income households, it is vital for householdsurvival. In addition, promoting women’s economic empowermentfacilitates the achievement of other importantpublic policy goals such as economic growth, improved humandevelopment, and reduced violence.We firmly believe that the scope of Sida’s engagement forwomen’s economic empowerment must address issues of accessto and control over resources, but also structural genderinequalities such as unpaid work.In line with the ideas presented in this paper, Sida’s genderequality work will prioritize women’s economic empowermentin land and user rights, agricultural development, unpaid carework, entrepreneurship and private sector development.We hope this paper will inspire others to join us and furtherdevelop the work on women’s economic empowerment.Sincerely,Anders Pedersen, Director Department forEmpowerment, Democracy, Human Rightsand Gender EqualitySidaSusanne Wadstein, Head of theGender Equality Team, DepartmentforEmpowerment,Sida5

Executive SummarySummary of key areasfor women’s economicempowermentKey area 1: Entrepreneurshipand privatesector developmentObjective: Remove barriersto female entrepreneurshipand promote inclusivefinancial servicesand trade policies.Key area 2: Access toland and property rightsObjective: Increase genderequality in terms ofaccess to and controlover land and propertyrights.Key area 3: Labour marketsand decent workObjective: Ensure equalaccess to decent andproductive work for bothwomen and men.Key area 4: Unpaidcare workObjectives: Promote amore equal sharing ofunpaid care work betweenmen and women;gradually increase affordablechildcare options;promote infrastructureinvestmentsthat reduce tedioushousehold work.Women’s economic empowerment is the single most importantfactor contributing to equality between women and men. Aspecific focus on women is necessary given the reality thatwomen comprise the majority of economically disadvantagedgroups. For this reason Swedish development cooperation isincreasing its support for women’s economic empowerment aspart of its overall development programming. This paper aimsto generate a structured debate and dialogue on the subject ofwomen’s economic empowerment, with the aim of defining thescope of policy and operational programming in the context ofSida’s engagement with partner governments and institutions.Gendered power structures and social norms lock both womenand men in positions that limit both their productivity andtheir ability to choose the lives they want to live. However, forthe purpose of this paper we will discuss the specifics of economicempowerment of women, while also acknowledging theneed to empower certain groups of disadvantaged men.Empowerment refers to the process of change that gives individualsgreater freedom of choice and action. A process ofeconomic empowerment for women is contingent upon availableresources and whether women have the skills to use them;access to economic opportunities; and control over economicbenefits that can be used to achieve positive change. In reality,women face obstacles throughout the process of transformingresources into strategic choices.Paramount among the obstacles to women’s economic empowermentis society’s dependence on women’s unpaid work,either at home or the market (in the agricultural sector, for example).This results in women’s increased time poverty, restrictingtheir ability to engage in paid and formal work. Removingand overcoming many of the barriers to women’seconomic empowerment, care work disparities included, willrequire structural change within social institutions to activelypromote gender equality and women’s rights.6

2. What Is Women’s EconomicEmpowerment?Women’s economic empowerment is seen today as the single most importantfactor contributing to equality between women and men. Economicstability increases an individual’s options and choices in life.Economic empowerment puts women in a stronger positionand gives them the power to participate, together with men, inthe shaping of society, to influence development at all levels ofsociety, and to make decisions that promote their family’s andtheir own wellbeing. Economic empowerment of women is amatter of human rights and social justice.Conceptualizing women’s economic empowerment. A common definitionof empowerment encompasses both the process of changethat enables individuals to have greater freedom of choice,and the actions and choices that the individual makes. 3 TheWorld Bank is one of the few actors to have defined women’seconomic empowerment. However, the World Bank definitionfocuses principally on markets, that is, “…making marketswork for women and empowering women to compete in markets”.4 Access to markets is important because inequality preventswomen from having equal access to productive resourcesand economic opportunities. Sida’s definition of women’s economicempowerment goes beyond the market and also encompasseschange in relation to access to and control over criticaleconomic resources and opportunities; it also addresses theneed to eliminate structural gender inequalities in the labourmarket and reduce women’s unpaid work.Sida defines women’s economic empowerment as the process whichincreases women’s real power over economic decisions that influencetheir lives and priorities in society. Women’s EconomicEmpowermentcan be achieved through equal access to and control over criticaleconomic resources and opportunities, and the elimination of structuralgender inequalities in the labour market including a bettersharing of unpaid care work.9

WHAT IS WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT?The economic empowerment of women requires working with men, andchallenging long-standing gender stereotypes. A vital starting pointfor increasing women’s economic participation is to work withmen to address the double burden of care-giving and paidwork. Working with men and women to confront gender stereotypesis important for economic empowerment of both womenand men, as it will expand men and women’s opportunitiesto provide for themselves. Addressing the gender stereotypeddivision of labour that condemns women to carry out the bulkof unpaid work will also provide men with opportunities to expandtheir role in society. It will allow men to combine familyand work, and engage in the care of their children and otherfamily members; it will also increase opportunities for them totake up non-traditional male jobs and increase their optionsfor income-generating work. Overall, increasing women bargainingpower within the family is essential to enable womento take control over economic benefits and to expand theirstrategic life choices. Interventions that change power relationswithin the family for example addressing gender normsand practices limiting women and men’s choices will be essentialto achieve women’s economic empowerment.Finally, a precondition for the effective economic empowerment of womenis increased accountability by and systematic transformation of institutionsto actively promote gender equality and women’s rights. In practicalterms this means institutions questioning and changingtheir goals, strategies and working processes to promote genderequality. Understanding women’s economic empowermentin this way opens up opportunities to improve the situationof women through a number of interventions in differentsectors, as described in Chapter 4.12

3. Why the EconomicEmpowerment of Women?The economic empowerment of women is a human rights and social justiceissue, but it also reduces poverty, and strengthens economic growthand development. Interventions aimed at promoting women’seconomic empowerment will help in achieving full recognitionand realization of women’s economic rights, and ultimatelysustainable development. While economic growth haslong been seen as an important route to poverty reduction,patterns of growth are just as important as the pace. Studiesshow that the higher the initial inequality in distribution of assetssuch as education, land or capital, the less likely it is that aparticular growth path will reduce poverty. Indeed, studieshave shown that countries with a high level of gender equalityare more successful in reducing poverty than those with a lowlevel of gender equality. 6 While it is important to take full accountof markets and private enterprise in economic growthprocesses and to improve people’s access to land, labour andcapital, it is equally important to invest in basic social services,social protection and infrastructure. In addition, the economiccontribution of women, especially in low-income households,is vital for household survival. Furthermore, their increasedparticipation in the labour force stimulates economicgrowth, in the short term through increased consumption andin the longer term through differential savings. 7Gender inequalities lead to sub-optimal resource allocations and limiteconomic growth 8 . Gender inequalities result in resource allocations,especially of labour resources, that follow social and culturalnorms rather than economic incentives. This has negativeeffects on the flexibility, responsiveness and dynamism ofeconomic processes and hence limits growth. Lower labourforce participation by women results in lower output andhence lower GDP. Also, lower productivity and earnings dueto discrimination and inequalities in the labour market reducethe value of production and hence have a negative impact onGDP. By contrast, gender equality in labour market participationreduces poverty and increases inclusive pro-poor growth.13

WHY THE ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN?Box 1: Gender inequality hampers a country’s growth andpoverty reduction effortsResearch shows that reductions in gender inequality boost growthand development.• GNP per capita is lower in countries where there is significantgender inequality in education 9 . In sub-Saharan Africa, inequalitybetween men and women in education and employment suppressedannual per capita growth during 1960–1992 by 0.8 percentagepoints per year. A boost of 0.8 percent per year wouldhave doubled economic growth over that period 10 .• In India, between 1990 and 2005, states with the highest percentageof women in the labour force grew the fastest economicallyand saw the largest reductions in poverty 11 .• In Burkina Faso, similar access to fertilizer and labour by menand women farmers would increase agricultural output between10 and 20 percent 12 .Why focus on women? Gendered power structures and socialnorms lock both women and men in positions that limit boththeir productivity and their ability to choose the lives theywant to live. Gender equality benefits both men and womenbut as women are marginalized as economic actors due tostructural inequalities that leave more women than men economicallyinsecure, this paper focuses on women’s economicempowerment. This does not mean that we are overlookingthe need for empowering certain groups of men. In some settingsit is necessary to have programmes that include bothwomen and men while acknowledging their gender-specificneeds. The economic marginalization of specific groups ofmen is a key factor contributing to HIV, to men’s use of violenceand to men’s migration for work, all realities that leavemen vulnerable but also directly affecting the lives of womenand children. Despite the benefits that gendered economic attitudesand roles may bring to men as a group, some men areput at a disadvantage through gender stereotyping and shiftingeconomic opportunities (see Box 2 for examples). To be effective,development programmes need to take into accountthe gender-specific needs of both women and men in differentsegments.14

WHY THE ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN?Box 2: Examples of how men are disadvantaged by stereotypingand shifting economic opportunities• Social norms and expectations prevent unemployed men to takeup jobs considered to be “women’s work”.• Feminization of labour in the context of trade liberalization underminesmale livelihood.• Low-earning men have been excluded from participation in micro-financeprogrammes on the basis of stereotypical assumptionsthat men’s repayment rates will be lower and less reliable.• A nine-country study 13 shows that a relatively high percentage ofmen report that they are stressed and depressed as a result ofhaving too little income or being underemployed, and reveals thedeep shame associated with men being unemployed, particularlyin the lowest income settings.Economic empowerment also contributes to the reduction of gender-basedviolence, increases women’s family-planning possibilities and slows thespread of HIV/Aids. Women’s improved economic situation providesopportunities to escape exploitative relationships athome by breaking the economic dependence on a partner thatis often at the root of domestic violence. Empowerment entailsan expansion of women’s choices, including those in thedomain of sexual and reproductive health. An increase inwomen’s decision-making power and control over their reproductivehealth has been found to reduce the number of childrenin families and slow down the transmission of HIV. 14Finally, investing in the economic empowerment of women and in the promotionof gender equality has broad multiplier effects for human developmentbecause there is a positive correlation with children’shealth and education. 15 An additional year of education forgirls can reduce infant mortality by as much as 10 percent. 16One study showed that the children of educated mothers were40 percent more likely to live beyond the age of five, and were50 percent more likely to be immunized. 17 A mother’s socialand economic status was also one of the best indicators ofwhether her children escaped poverty and were in goodhealth. In addition, enabling men to take equal responsibilityand to increase their active engagement in the care of childrenhas a positive impact on child health and development, reductionof violence in societies, women’s well-being and men’sown mental health. 1815

4. Key Areas for Women’sEconomicEmpowermentProvided that women’s economic empowerment is a cross-cuttingissue, adequate implementation of the aid effectivenessagenda requires a combination of interventions aiming directlyat increasing women’s access and control over economic resources.This has to be combined with commitments to facilitateequal sharing of family responsibilities and unpaid carework between women and men and gradual development ofoptions for childcare solutions.Work in seven key areas will contribute to strengthening women’s positionas economic actors. There is a need for increased access toland and property rights and a gender perspective in entrepreneurshipprogrammes, private sector development and labourmarket policies. Developing women’s human capital is also essentialfor them to become economic actors. Reforms and redistributionof unpaid care work will facilitate women’s economicengagement. Finally, a gender perspective in socialprotection will provide women in vulnerable situations witheconomic security. As the majority of poor women today livein rural areas and are dependent on agricultural production, agender perspective and specific focus on women in the agriculturalsector is crucial.Key area 1: Entrepreneurship and privatesector developmentPriority: Remove barriers to female entrepreneurship and promoteinclusive financial services and trade policies.16Private sector development should support female entrepreneurs by removingthe barriers to the development of women-owned enterprises. Femaleentrepreneurs play a prominent role in the economies of developingcountries. In Africa, women’s businesses account formore than one-third of all firms and the majority of businessesin the informal economy. 19 In addition, female-owned enterprisesproduce positive economic and social outcomes, enhancingwomen’s self-confidence, increasing their participationin household and economic decisions and contributing totheir economic empowerment. 20 However, most women inlow-income and transition countries have micro- or small enterprisesoperating mainly in the informal economy and arealmost invisible in large and medium enterprises. They facemultiple obstacles that diminish their opportunities and potentialas businesswomen and entrepreneurs. They have lim-

KEY AREAS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENTited access to education and training, are less likely to bemembers of business associations, have less freedom to selecttheir business sector, and are subject to discriminatory attitudesin property, marital and inheritance laws. 21 Many relyon personal savings or on contributions from relatives to fundtheir enterprises, and without property ownership, they lackcollateral to access credit from formal financial institutions. 22They also face administrative barriers as well as lack of information,which limit business development and hinder graduationfrom the informal to the formal economy.Enabling women to become successful in business development requiresaddressing underlying policy and regulatory constraints. The hurdlesfaced by women and men when starting or expandingtheir business vary from country to country, sector to sectorand region to region. It is therefore important to develop theknowledge base about local entrepreneurship and its characteristics,including the challenges confronting each group indifferent settings. Thereby women’s and men’s equal access toeconomic resources and business support to start, formalizeand expand their businesses can be ensured. (See Box 3)In order to be successful, sector policies need to continue supportingbusiness training, start-up services and mentorship for women linked tomicro-finance while promoting measures that set the foundations for amore business-enabling environment and inclusive financial systems.Many programmes exist throughout the developing worldthat offer small-scale entrepreneurship training for women,provide market information, promote market access through,for example, trade fairs, and improve business managementand financial skills. Services through business incubators areincreasingly offered to young people, men and women, and afew are offered exclusively to women and girls. It should benoted that training programmes designed to suit the needs ofwomen do exist as well as programmes that set criteria ensuringthat at least a certain percentage of participants are women.These are examples of initiatives which can be furtherdeveloped.Access to non-collateralized credit is important for starting or growingbusinesses. In many places, micro-credit is accessible to womenbut such schemes do not always address the issue of the sizeand duration of loans women may need. Even when loans areaccessible, they are often too small to provide sufficient capitalto start or grow an enterprise. Measures to address these issuesinclude investing in product development that responds to theneed for larger loans and longer terms in micro-credit programmesand setting up equity lines as incentives for commercialbanks to lend to women. Where programmes do not currentlyexist, start-up investments in micro-finance can beeffective, as the knowledge and systems are now well knownand easily replicable.17

KEY AREAS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENTBox 3: Gender-sensitive entrepreneurship programmes −the example of ILO Women’s Entrepreneurship Developmentand Gender Equality (WEDGE)The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) WEDGE programmefollows a development and rights-based approach that aims tomeet the practical needs of women entrepreneurs; remove the socio-cultural,legal and political barriers to women’s entrepreneurship;and advocate for an enabling environment for business developmentand gender equality. The programme provides anexample of a comprehensive approach to increasing the number offemale entrepreneurs, using a three-pronged strategy:• creating an enabling environment for women’s entrepreneurship,development and gender equality;• building the institutional capacity of agencies involved in women’sentrepreneurship development and gender equality; and• developing tools and support services for women entrepreneurs.2318Achieving women’s economic empowerment requires better integration ofgender issues in trade policies. Women are increasingly employedas wage earners in private sector firms, especially in agribusinessesand export-processing zones in low- and middle-incomecountries. Trade agreements affect prices, employment andproduction structures and have a different impact on men andwomen due to their different positions in the economic system.While export-led manufacturing has meant more employmentopportunities for women, it has not broken the horizontal orvertical gender segregation in the labour market or closed thegender wage gap. The informal sector has persisted andgrown, and a notable trend is the expanded use of women assubcontracted or home workers. 24 Trade liberalization maylead to competition in sectors that have not traditionally beenexposed to international competition and could be devastatingfor local small-scale producers, many of whom are women.The effects of trade agreements on women in various segmentsof producers need to be better analysed and possiblemitigating measures identified.Trade policies need to integrate gender considerations in their designin order to minimize the possible negative gender impacts of structural reformsand explicitly promote gender equality. Reforms can be combinedwith programmes targeting employment, labour marketpolicies and social protection within both the informal andformal economy, to mitigate negative effects. Interventions includeland- or sector-specific reforms to enable poor people totake advantage of the benefits of trade and the structural adjustmentthat might follow. Similarly, infrastructure investments,career guidance, enhanced employability and invest-

KEY AREAS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENTments in human resources, and increased access to creditshould be promoted. Finally, female participation in trade negotiationsshould also be encouraged.Key area 2: Access to land and propertyrightsPriority: Increase gender equality in terms of access to and controlover land and property rights.Increased access to economic resources such as land and property will givewomen greater economic security and increase their economic rights.Women in rural areas usually access land and housingthrough their husband or other relatives, or they rent land intheir local village. Their economic security becomes dependenton their relatives and is not secured through formal titlingor laws. In cases such as divorce, the death of a husband, or remarriage,women’s ownership rights are not guaranteed, andare often forfeited or overruled by social pressure. As a result,women’s economic security is weak, and uncertainty leads tolow incentives for women to invest in the land or their farm.Strengthening women’s access to land and natural resources is criticalas women are major food producers and contributors to the local food supplyand family nutrition in most countries. Yet they frequently lacksecure access to the land where food is produced, often lose accessto their husband’s land at the time of his death, rarelyhave the same rights to inherit land as men, and are forgottenwhen land is distributed though land reform. Worldwide,women own 1–2 percent of registered land. In Uganda, womenare the main cultivators, but they own only 7 percent of theland. 25 In Cameroon, women do more than 75 percent of agriculturalwork, but hold less than 10 percent of land certificates.26 A significant number of low-income women also earnincome through home-based production, either as self-employedproducers or as subcontractors to larger firms. Lack oftitle to land or property blocks access to credit, thereby limitingthe growth of farming businesses. For women farmers torealize their full potential as producers, access to land must beaccompanied by access to rural extension, credit, productioninputs, technology and human capital development. Securingwomen’s property rights strengthens women’s income-generatingwork and is also a means of social protection.New land legislation has to include explicit and mandatory measuresof inclusion to translate into de facto changes in customary landpractices or local bureaucratic decision. If constitutional rightsare to be guaranteed, statutory reforms are needed and specificguidelines have to be developed. Increasing women’s basiclegal literacy through targeted information campaignsabout laws improves their options for exercising their property19

KEY AREAS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENTrights. A priority in land law processes, land distribution processesand land administration processes must be securing bothwomen and men’s rights.Policies and interventions aiming at strengthening women’s access toland and property rights need to take into account complex factors leadingto weak implementation of women’s rights. Gender inequality interms of access to land can originate in discriminatory inheritancepractices and/or purchases or transfers from the stateor traditional local authorities. Additional complications arisefrom inconsistencies between national and local tenure systems.Even in places where women are legally entitled to ownland, they may not know their rights or be able to claim or enforcethem; in some cultures gender norms prevent them fromspeaking in public. Where customary laws prevail, it is importantto ensure that property rights for men and women areprotected. Where land titling and reform programmes are underway,women’s rights should be made known and enforced;this needs specific approaches to be effective. If land titles arebeing awarded to formerly excluded groups, women should beawarded joint titles to land and houses with husbands, and female-headedhouseholds should specifically be identified andwomen awarded their own titles. Either way, legal systemsmust recognize the equal rights to property and title of bothwomen and men. This means that both women and menshould have access to legal processes and legal help to ensurethat their rights are properly enforced.Key area 3: Labour markets and decent workPriority: Ensure equal access to decent work for both womenand men.20Despite a sustained increase in female labour force participation in recentdecades, important gender inequalities remain in the labour market. Thepotential benefits of employment for women are numerous, includingaccess to stable earning, health insurance and pensions.However, women often experience gender discriminationin the labour market, or are forced into the informaleconomy and/or subsistence-oriented activities. For example,export-processing zones tend to employ a large number ofyoung female workers. The living and working conditions inthese zones are often very harsh, with long working days, andhigh turnover rates with little potential for job security. Manywomen in the agricultural sector also work under poor conditions,resulting in low productivity, and hence low earnings.Women are also more likely to be in domestic and homebasedwork or to be “unpaid family workers”. Also, globally,women’s wages are on average 70–90 percent those of men’swages. 27 Women in the labour market often face difficulties in

KEY AREAS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENTreturning to employment after maternity leave as well as difficultiesin holding on to employment. The “motherhood gap”in wages and the general pay gap are also wide in many transitions,middle-income and developed countries. It is only recentlythat in Brazil, for example, some state governmentshave introduced one-month paternity leave for state governmentworkers.Decent work is a human right and should be at the forefront of genderaware labour market policy. Economic growth is a prerequisite foremployment creation, but not sufficient in itself. It is widelyrecognized that decent work is not guaranteed by economicgrowth, and specific policies are needed to make it happen.Sector analysis − looking into opportunities for improvementsin working conditions and productivity increases in agricultureand supply- and value chains, including working conditionsfor home-based workers − could be of great importancefor enhancing decent work opportunities for women andstrengthening their economic empowerment. This could alsohelp stem the migration of vulnerable young women from ruralareas into low-quality informal jobs with high risks of exploitation.Policies that enhance childcare options would help adults in the familyengage in paid work and stay in the labour force. Hiring and paypractices for women are often influenced by employers’ expectationsthat women’s reproductive roles will interfere withtheir work. Work schedules that reduce working hours or provideworkers with more control over the organization of theirtime, and the possibility of working from a chosen location,can facilitate the reconciling of work and family responsibilities.Overall, policies such as parental leave, flexible workhours, job-sharing and individualized working hours havebeen instrumental in facilitating women’s economic participationin industrialized and middle-income countries. Findingappropriate solutions and policies in low-income countries willbe instrumental to women’s economic empowerment. Employers,civil society organizations and governments in developingcountries are providing innovative solutions. A decentwork concept with a life-cycle perspective, can offer importantinsights for the formulation of gender-aware labour and socialprotection policy.21

KEY AREAS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENTBox 4: Maternity rights in Ethiopia’s public worksrogrammePregnant women are given maternity rights in the Safety Net Programin Ethiopia. They are granted temporary maternity leavefrom public works, starting in the sixthmonth of pregnancy and continuing until 10 months after birth.Pregnant and breast-feeding women can switch from heaviertasks to lighter labour or training activities. The programme alsoallows for flexible hours to accommodate women’s need for latearrival or early departure as a result of household responsibilities.28Policies need to address gender discrimination in laws and regulations.Sometimes, regulations designed to protect women, such asthose limiting night work, may end up hampering their employmentoptions. In some countries, a woman still legallyneeds her husband’s or father’s permission to work. Furthermore,women may not benefit from collective bargaining becausethey are often not represented well in trade unions. 29 Alarge proportion of women, especially those in the informaleconomy, are outside the scope of employment-linked benefits.Nor do they have access to state-supported social protection,as provisions are limited and uneven in developing countries.Active labour market policies can also play an important role in addressinggender segregation in the labour market. Gender segregationin the labour market leads women to low-skilled positions andpoorly-paid occupations, creating a self-perpetuating cycle.Policies are needed that enable women to expand their skills,secure equal pay for equal work and offer benefits such as paidleave, health insurance and pensions. Public employmentservices such as placement, counselling, support in job-seeking,or training, employment incentives, direct job creationand start-up incentives are important mechanisms that helpsupport men and women to enter non-traditional sectors andjobs. (See Box 5)22

KEY AREAS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENTBox 5: Revised Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) providean opportunity to monitor progress on gender disparitiesin the labour market.Under Goal 1 − Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger − a new target(1B) has been introduced: Achieve full and productive employmentand decent work for all, including women and young people.This target in turn includes four indicators that countries shouldreport on annually. These are:• Vulnerability employment rate; proportion of own-account andcontributing family workers in total employment• Employment to population ratio• Working poor; proportion of employed people living below 1 USD(PPP 30 ) per day• Labour productivity; growth rate of GDP per person employedAll indicators are disaggregated by sex.Key area 4: Unpaid Care WorkPriorities:• Promote a more equal sharing of unpaid care work betweenmen and women.• Gradually increase affordable childcare options• Promote infrastructure investments that reduce tedioushousehold work.Unpaid care work refers to the provision of services within the householdand for other household and community members. These services areunremunerated and are usually left out of systems of nationalaccounts (SNAs) but have a cost in time and energy. Womencarry out a disproportionate share of care work in developingcountries. Global data indicate that women spend two to fourtimes the amount of time as men do in childcare. A recentmulti-country study of lower, middle and higher income countriesfound that the mean time spent on unpaid work by womenis more than twice that of men, reaching ten times as muchunpaid care work for women in India and other low-incomesettings. 32 Factors such as the increase in the number of female-headedhouseholds, single parents and the increasedcare needs caused by HIV/Aids in some parts of the world addto the unpaid workload of women.Women’s economic empowerment initiatives need to engage directly inreducing the disproportionate share of domestic and care-related work carriedout by women, which prevents their effective engagement in incomegeneratingwork. The almost universal responsibility of womenfor providing unpaid care for the family is the reason behindtheir lower rates of participation in the paid labour force, aswell as lower pay. Studies from countries as diverse as theExample of applicableinternational convention:Workers withFamily ResponsibilitiesConvention 1981 (No.156)The ILO identifies responsibilitiestowards dependentfamily members anddomestic work but leavesit to each country to define“family” and “family obligations”in their own context.The ILO suggestsspecific measures forgovernments to promotework-family reconciliation.3123

KEY AREAS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENTChildcare promotion inKenyaIn Kenya the governmenthas established a policyframework requiring primaryschools to have aunit for pre-school educationfor children from theage of three, called babyclasses. The governmenthas adopted a partnershipscheme which allows parentassociations, religiousand welfare organizations,private firms and individualsto cooperate inthe financing and managementof these units. 36Kyrgyz Republic 33 and Brazil 34 demonstrate that care responsibilities– for children and the elderly – are a key factor inwhether or not women engage in the labour market. In theKyrgyz Republic women cited childcare constraints as thereason for not being involved in the labour market. In Brazilthe provision of low-cost child-care services significantly increasedwomen’s labour force participation. 35Economic and labour market policies should uphold basic ILO principleson rights to reconciliation of family and work. Childcare is particularlyimportant, not only because it is fundamental to women’s economicempowerment, but also because it helps transform norms by shiftingwomen’s unpaid care responsibilities into collective shared social responsibilities.In Eastern and Central Europe, where reduced socialspending caused employers to terminate free or low-cost childcare,women withdrew from the labour force. 37 The ILO ConventionNo. 156 on Workers with Family provides guidanceon policies and measures needed to enable female and maleworkers to combine family and work responsibilities. Paid, formalchildcare and state-supported care have been essential towomen’s economic empowerment in high- and middle-incomecountries. Childcare initiatives in countries such as Chile, Indiaand Brazil offer solutions for extending these options inlow-income countries and for bringing more men into thechildcare profession. Policies such as maternity leave, parentalleave (paternity and maternity leave), flexible working hoursand job-sharing are instrumental in facilitating women’s economicparticipation and men’s engagement in childcare. TheBeijing Platform for Action stresses the importance of addressinggender inequalities in care work in achieving women’s economicempowerment and urges governments to implementmeasures to address it through legislation, incentives and othermeasures. 38In low-income countries, infrastructure investments that reduce women’stime poverty are a priority. In low-income countries deficientinfrastructure causes women to spend long hours in tediouswork. Investments in infrastructure (water, sanitation, electricity,etc.) and time-saving technologies are essential to alleviatewomen’s poverty in many developing countries in theshort term. In Guinea, for example, women are three percentagepoints more likely to be time-poor than men; and for ruralwomen this probability increases by an additional 10 percentagepoints. 3924

KEY AREAS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENTKey area 5: Human capitalPriorities:• Increase women’s access to quality post-primary education• Increase the number of children enrolled in early childhoodeducationEducation policies intended to promote women’s economic empowermentshould prioritize post-primary education and promote early childhood education.Primary education provides a solid foundation onwhich to develop human capital, but primary education aloneis not enough to address structural inequalities. Improvementsin gender equality, empowerment and well-being have astrong correlation with women’s access to secondary and higherlevels of education. 40 Higher levels of education increasewomen’s chances of formal employment and the gains fromemployment. Gender inequality in wages is reduced for thosewith higher levels of education. Women are more likely to bethe agents of change if they have post-primary education. 41Therefore, it is essential to promote measures to increase postprimaryeducation for girls and women. Increasing school enrolmentand putting in place measures to keep girls in schoolbeyond primary school should be a priority for education interventionsworking towards women’s economic empowerment.Investment in early childhood education enables womento participate more effectively in society and inincome-generating work.Successful vocational training programmes offer girls and womentraining that does not reinforce occupational segregationor concentrate women in low-skill and low-wage work, butleads to better-paid work, offers opportunities for career advancementand increases the number of women in occupationsoutside the traditional female fields. Vocational trainingoffers viable options for girls unable to pursue higher education,and for women who lack formal education, and will improvetheir economic status. Studies show that women aremore likely to succeed in finding employment if training programmesare multi-dimensional – that is, developing technicalskills as well as job-readiness skills, and supporting individualswith job search and placement services. Similarly, integratedbusiness support services and information andcommunication technology (ICT) skills are essential componentsof successful vocational education and training. Encouragingwomen to acquire skills in expanding areas such as ICT,where job opportunities and salary levels are comparativelyhigh, is another route to economic empowerment.25

KEY AREAS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENTNon-traditional vocationaltraining in Honduras.The Honduras Social Fundproject that trained womenin a variety of constructionrelatedskills was effective.One of the many reasons itworked was that it built upmen’s capacity to acceptwomen’s participation inthis field. 42Improving the quality of education plays an important role in challenginggender stereotypes and gender-discriminatory practices and increasesacceptance of the expansion of women’s role in society. Gender-sensitivecurricula that stress gender equality and challengeexisting social and gender norms can encourage bothgirls and boys to enter non-traditional fields. Such curriculaemphasize, for example, analytical skills for girls as well asboys, and encourage girls in particular to take subjects such asmathematics and science. Also important is occupationalskills training for girls that steers them into areas of current labour-marketdemand. There is also a need for curricula thatreinforce equitable roles and encourage relationships betweengirls and boys that enable both to develop their full potential.The educational sector plays a leading role in the implementation ofan integrated approach to youth economic empowerment. Successfulstrategies in Asia and Africa include peer education for skillstraining and leadership training, strong social support andmentoring. Such strategy gradually starts with entry level activitiesin a safe, supportive environment that progress to vocationaltraining and eventually leads to access to micro creditor employment. Young women in particular need better accessto information and credit. They also need help to overcomerestrictive labour markets as well as social norms thatrestrict women’s activities; development of self-esteem is importantin this process. The school system also needs to be effectivein providing education for young mothers. This entailsfinding solutions for childcare.Key area 6: Social protectionPriority: Promote gender-sensitive social protection systemsand increase the number of women covered.26Gender-sensitive social protection schemes take into account the differentworking conditions of women and men. Gender inequality in the labourmarket should not be transferred to social protectionschemes by making them dependent on full-time employment,as this means that many women are excluded from unemploymentbenefits, old-age pensions and childcare benefits or receiveonly minimal benefits. Social protection should fulfil women’seconomic rights in situations where, for various reasons, womenare vulnerable.Gender-sensitive social protection strategies need to target older womenand unpaid family workers in transition and developing countries. Socialprotection schemes should recognize the specific situationmany older women are in, due to their lack of earlier income,and give specific economic support to them, to make them lessdependent on others. The design of pension schemes, labourmarket policies and care policies needs to be coordinated to

KEY AREAS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENTreduce the risk of poverty for older women. Similarly, socialprotection systems need to recognize the economic rights ofunpaid family workers. Other initiatives, such as increasingthe number of women registered as farmers, will entitle womento benefits. In transition countries it is important to takemeasures to integrate female farmers into the social protectionsystem to make them eligible for unemployment benefits, maternitybenefits and pensions.Addressing gender biases in pension systems is essential to providegender aware social protection. Pension is an important source of incomefor low income women and men in old age in many partner countries.Due to a longer life expectancy than men, more women willlive on a pension for a long period of time. In EU accessioncountries and EU neighbouring countries, it is essential to increasewomen’s formal employment as well as reduce genderdiscrimination in the labour market, if women are to have theright to a pension at the same level as men’s. These countriesare increasingly aligning their pension schemes with EU systems,with the result that the new pension schemes will have astronger link between individual labour market participationand the future pension. Therefore, measures must be taken toprevent inequalities in the labour market from reducing women’scontributions to pension schemes and consequently reducingtheir future pension. Pension schemes also need to be designedthat give women and men the same opportunity toreach the full contribution time, taking into account women’smore frequent breaks in their working life due to maternityand parental leave, part-time jobs and longer investment ineducation. An increasing number of low income countries, includingSouth Africa, Namibia, Bangladesh and India, are introducingfully tax-financed pension schemes, making a pensiona source of income even in poorer countries. Integratinggender perspectives in the design of pension schemes is essentialto avoid excluding large numbers of women.Flexibility and informality of the labour market in developing countriesrequire rethinking the concept of social protection and how it is delivered.Non-traditional social protection schemes provide solutions that enableexpanded coverage for women. Since work-based traditionalsocial protection schemes tend to exclude women, a life-courseapproach to social protection that recognizes the unpaid workdone by women within the domestic domain can go a longway in expanding women’s coverage. In a similar vein, theILO concept of a minimum social floor reframes social protectionas a citizen’s right rather than a worker’s right. Structuredunder this principle, social protection schemes can reachwomen and men working in the informal sector and those withflexible job contracts in the formal sector, as well as those whoare not engaged in the market but contribute significantly to theeconomy through their reproductive work. 43 Community-based27

KEY AREAS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENTsocial protection schemes are also effective in reaching informalsector workers including women (see Box 6).Conditional cash transfers are an effective mechanism to reach andprotect women and girls. Conditional Cash Transfers, whichchannel money to households on the condition of householdinvestment in the education and health of girls, have proliferatedin many developing and middle-income countries in thelast decade. Mexico, Brazil, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Bangladesh,Turkey and Pakistan are just a few of the countries to have introducedthis type of social protection mechanism, which activelycontributes to building basic human capital and is animportant stepping stone in the process of skills development,labour market participation and the seizing of economic opportunities.Box 6: Examples of gender-sensitive social protectionHealth insurance and pensions for female informal workers inAsia. SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association) offers a menuof social protection mechanisms for its approximately 250,000members throughout India. The association provides social securityand health insurance, including generous maternity benefitsfor women. It is financed through a proportional combination ofprivate members’ contributions and interest paid on a loan fromthe German Development Agency (GTZ), and a publicly subsidizedpackage scheme from the Indian Ministry of Labour. The GrameenKalyan, an offshoot of the Bangladeshi Grameen Bank, targets informalworkers through health insurance. Members, 70 percent ofwhom are women, make compulsory contributions towards alump sum pension that members can claim when they leave theorganization. 44Source: ILOGender-sensitive social protection strategies need to target older womenand unpaid family workers. Social protection schemes should recognizethe specific situation many older women are in, due totheir lack of earlier income, and give specific economic supportto them, to make them less dependent on others. The designof pension schemes, labour market policies and care policiesneeds to be coordinated to reduce the risk of poverty forolder women. Similarly, social protection systems need to recognizethe economic rights of unpaid family workers. Otherinitiatives, such as increasing the number of women registeredas farmers, will entitle women to benefits. In transition countriesit is important to take measures to integrate female farmersinto the social protection system to make them eligible forunemployment benefits, maternity benefits and pensions.28

KEY AREAS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENTKey area 7: Agriculture and ruraldevelopmentPriority: To recognize and remunerate women in their criticalrole as agricultural producers.Women’s work in agriculture is essential for poverty reduction, food securityand rural growth. Women are responsible for 60–80 percentof food production in developing countries, even though theyare restricted to growing food crops and rearing poultry andsmall livestock, and their work remains mostly unpaid. Studiesshow that investing in women farmers pays off. In Kenya a nationwideinformation campaign targeted at women as part ofa national extension project resulted in the yield of corn increasingby 28 percent, beans by 80 percent and potatoes by84 percent 45 . In Burkina Faso similar access by men and womenfarmers to fertilizer and labour would increase agriculturaloutput by between 10 and 20 percent. 46Therefore, increased investments that provide womenfarmers with greater access to resources, inputs (fertilizers,seeds, credit), markets, information and technologies can helpreduce poverty, improve food security and strengthen ruralgrowth. Sida’s overall objective of improving the living conditionsof poor people means that the agricultural sector is especiallyimportant for Sida’s work on women’s economic empowerment.Policies and interventions targeting the economic empowerment of ruralwomen need to remove obstacles to women’s productive work. In mostdeveloping countries women farmers are mostly under-resourced.They have less access than men to land, credit, technicalassistance and other key inputs and services essential fordeveloping their productive functions. A FAO survey foundthat, worldwide, women farmers receive only 5 percent of agriculturalextension services. Only 15 percent of extensionagents are women, even though it is well known that they aremore effective in reaching out to women farmers. 47Women do not always obtain the returns from their laboureither. For example, in small-scale commercial farming agribusinessescontract with male household heads rather thanjointly with men and women, despite the joint work of menand women in the farm enterprise. 48Policies and interventions in the agricultural sector need toaddress gender inequalities in access to productive inputs andservices, as well as in decision-making. Gender mainstreamingin rural sector policies is essential to achieving women’seconomic empowerment.Most important, agricultural policies and programmes should challengelong standing gender inequalities at the household level which leadwomen to carry out unpaid work as family helpers in the agricultural sec-29

KEY AREAS FOR WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENTtor. This will require a long term engagement from developmentpartners, Sida included, as well as multidisciplinary interventionswhich combine actions in agriculture, education,health, participation, etc. Where gender-aware approaches toagricultural and rural development have been adopted, theyhave strengthened women’s involvement and expanded theirdecision-making within the family and in society (see the examplein Box 7). This is a first step towards the kind of structuralchange required to provide women with equal opportunitiesto the returns of their work in the agricultural sectorvis-à-vis men.Box 7: The Agriculture Support Programme in Zambia hasbeen effective in reaching women. It has produced tangiblechanges in gender relations at the household level andenhanced women’s position in the communityThe programme was implemented through individual householdvisits, involving all adult household members: husband, wife andolder children. With the guidance of the extension officer, the familyjointly developed a household action plan and mobilized resourcestogether. The programme has substantially achieved women’s empowermentat household level. Women’s access to, and controlover, resources and household incomes have increased. Relationshipsbetween women and men have been strengthened and theirworkloads shared. Women’s self-esteem and confidence have increasedas they have become entrepreneurs and leaders in theirhome as well as the broader community.Some of the programme’s characteristics and achievements:• Both husbands and wives participated in workshops, trainingand exposure visits• Women’s skills were enhanced and productivity increased• Women gained the confidence to become involved in what traditionallywere predominantly male enterprises• Women attending entrepreneurship training established theirown business enterprises.Source: Sida30

5. Effective Implementation of WEEUnder the Inclusive Aid EffectivenessAgenda/accra Agenda for ActionPriority: Promote women’s economic empowerment under thenew aid modalities and ensure efficiency of women’s economicempowerment policies and interventions.Strengthening the capacity of finance and economic planning ministries, sectorministries and national women’s institutions to address gender issues in theirpolicies and programmes will strengthen aid effectiveness. Countries needto fulfil their commitment to gender equality goals by undertakinggender analysis within macroeconomic policies and integratinggender equality goals and targets into results frameworks andmedium-term expenditure frameworks. While new aid modalitiesoffer opportunities to promote gender equality and women’seconomic empowerment, progress with integrating gender intothese aid mechanisms so far has been dismal; instead, genderequality priorities have disappeared. 49The new aid modalities, including programme-based approaches,direct budget support and sector-wide approaches,provide more comprehensive ways for governments and partnersto contribute to women’s economic empowerment. Theyallow for integrated responses to issues that cut across severalsectors, such as women’s economic empowerment. (See Box 8)Box 8: The five aid effectiveness principles are entrypoints for comprehensive ways of undertaking effectivegender equality work.Ownership: national gender equality goals need to be integratedinto national development plans at the overall level as well as thesector level.Alignment: donors and recipient governments should increasinglyfinance implementation of national gender goals and the nationalgender machinery through the budget; donors should allocate additionalfinancial resources to finance national gender actionplans.Harmonization: there needs to be increasing use of joint genderanalysis, evaluations and dialogue with partners to monitorprogress towards gender commitments and develop joint monitoringframeworks including indicators and targets.Result-based management; gender perspectives should be integratedinto planning and budgeting processes; gender indicatorsand gender-disaggregated statistics are important, as is increaseduse of gender-responsive budgeting tools.Mutual accountability: donors must continue to support Civil SocietyOrganizations (CSOs) local engagement processes and otheraccountability actors to follow up on aid effectiveness.31

Effective implementation of WEE under the inclusive aid effectiveness agenda/accra agenda for actionBetter integration of a gender perspective into planning and budgetary processeswould facilitate the achievement of women’s economic empowermentgoals in national strategies. Overall, the new aid structure should: (i)include adequate funding for programmes addressing women’seconomic empowerment; (ii) develop accountability systems forgovernments and donors to track and enhance their contributionto priority areas for women’s economic empowerment; and(iii) develop gender-sensitive progress assessments and performanceindicators to measure progress on women’s economic empowerment.Gender-responsive budgeting provides an entrypoint to strengthen the monitoring and tracking of the effectivenessof governments’ gender work, including that linked towomen’s economic empowerment outcomes. To be effective,gender-responsive budgeting has to be an integrated part ofoverall financial reform (See Box 9 and example in Box 10).Box 9: Gender-responsive budgeting initiativesGender-responsive budgeting (GRB) is a response to gender-blind,macroeconomic frameworks. The latter do not take account of thesocial and economic differences between women and men inbudget allocations and expenditures. By contrast, GRB attempts tomake government budgets at all levels more responsive to genderneeds and inequalities and contribute to good governance.Advantages of GRB:• GRB builds on undertaking gender analysis as part of the budgetpreparatory phase and develops knowledge about gender differencesthat contributes to gender-sensitive budget formulation.• GRB contributes to analysing the effects of government budgetson the division of unpaid and paid work between women andmen.• GRB requires gender-disaggregated data for analytic purposesand prompt collection of this data is critical for sustainable development.• GRB tracks compliance with, and effective implementation of, internationaland national gender equality commitments, and alsomonitors policy effects at the sector level.Gender responsive budgeting is a particularly useful tool in thecontext of improved aid effectiveness for country ownership of developmentpriorities, improved governance and ensuring adequateresponses to and tracking of gender equity goals, overall and inspecific sectors.Policy dialogue, which often accompanies budget support, canraise gender issues at the highest levels, especially with financeministries in recipient governments and with other donors in theharmonization process. Donor budget support is also linked to anational poverty reduction strategy (PRS), a process that often includespublic participation in deliberation and negotiation. The formulationof the PRS creates opportunities for women’s participationand for raising gender issues. 5032

Effective implementation of WEE under the inclusive aid effectiveness agenda/accra agenda for actionNew aid modalities and poverty reduction strategies are dependent on improvedgender statistics for gender accountability in partner countries.Improving gender statistics requires sex-disaggregated data tobe collected and analysed. Since gender-based factors have animpact on social conditions, allow analysis of participationand contribution to social and economic areas and measurementof the outcomes of women’s and men’s participation inthe economy. National country systems are still facing challengesin building up systems to collect this information.Box 10: Gender Responsive Budgeting in MoroccoThe GRB programme started in 2003 and is considered one of thepillars of budgetary reform. The Ministry of Economy and Financeleads the reform process. In 2009 the annual gender report wasproduced by 21 departments for the finance bill. The report has becomea budget information document that is presented to Parliament.Several tools have been introduced with the purpose of improvingpolicy formulation and resource allocation through more finelytuned gender analysis and more disaggregated data. The work isundertaken in poverty and social exclusion mapping and disaggregatedpublic expenditure benefit analysis.Currently, government departments of literacy, non-formal education,health, employment and finance are reviewing specific programmesto make them more gender-responsive and more focusedon poverty and inequality,- and to ensure that genderresponsive indicators are developed.Source: UNIFEM33

6. Conclusions &RecommendationsThis working paper has attempted to define women’s economicempowerment, its rationale and the scope of work in thecontext of Sida’s engagement within the framework of aid effectiveness.Women’s economic empowerment is the most importantfactor that can contribute to gender equality betweenwomen and men. Recent evidence shows that gender equalityand women’s economic empowerment can also contribute toeconomic growth, poverty reduction and the fulfilment of humanrights and social justice commitments. Therefore, in orderfor the aid effectiveness agenda to produce successful results,it has to integrate gender goals and targets and addressgender equality and women’s economic empowerment issuesacross sectors.The paper argues that women have to be perceived as economicactors in the developing world, and processes to facilitatetheir labour market inclusion and productive work needto be enhanced. Improving women capabilities and skills isimportant to facilitate women’s entry into the labour marketand their entrepreneurship; facilitating access to land and productiveinputs and credit is also fundamental. Removing thebarriers to female entrepreneurship will help unleash women’seconomic potential and will contribute to their empowerment.However, a one-sided focus on women’s productive workwill not be enough. This paper, which reflects the approach toeconomic empowerment advocated by Sida, argues that it isalso essential to eliminate structural gender inequalities in thelabour market and reduce women’s unpaid work. Womenneed to access remuneration for their work in agriculture, anexample of their often unpaid productive work. Furthermore,a redistribution of unpaid care work between women and menis essential, as is a shift from ‘women’s unpaid care responsibility’to ‘collective shared social responsibility’. Providing affordablechildcare options must be a priority. Also, workingwith men to challenge and change gender stereotypes and expandmen and women’s social roles beyond narrow conceptionsof the meaning of gender in today’s societies is fundamentalto achieving women’s (and men’s) full empowerment.Finally, women’s economic empowerment also requires increasedaccountability on the part of institutions and systematictransformation so as to actively promote gender equalityand women’s rights.34

CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONSThe analysis in the paper identifies the following areas astargets where more work is needed in order to make women’seconomic empowerment effective under the new aid effectivenessagenda:• Remove barriers to female entrepreneurship and promoteinclusive financial services and trade policies. Sector policiesshould continue supporting business training, start-upservices and mentorship for women linked to micro-financewhile promoting measures that set the foundations for amore business-enabling environment and inclusive financialsystems.• Increase women’s access to land and property rights andcontrol over land and property rights. Interventions shouldanalyse the interface between law and customary regimesto provide practical solutions to women’s weak propertyrights.• Address women’s time poverty by promoting a more equalsharing of unpaid care work between men and women, aswell as gradually increasing the provision of affordablechildcare and basic infrastructure.• Ensure equal access to decent and productive work for bothwomen and men.• Increase women’s access to quality post-primary educationand increase enrolment of boys and girls in early childhoodeducation.• Make vocational training efficient by aligning courses withmarket demand, design them in a way that decreases occupationalsegregation; and provide women with skills inemerging areas such as ICT.• Develop gender-aware youth economic empowerment programmeswhich work with multi-phased approaches buildingcapacity and social support and establishing links withcredit. Programmes should also include child care optionsfor young mothers.• Promote legislative change to make pensions gender awarein transition and middle income countries and promoteconditional cash transfers and other non-labour linked socialprotection mechanisms in developing countries.• Mainstream gender in policies and programmes in the agriculturalsector as a long-term strategy to address genderinequalities in the rural sector in access to land and key inputsand redress the situation of women’s unpaid work inthe sector.• Strengthen the capacity of finance ministries and planningministries to integrate gender issues in macroeconomic policies.35

Sida works according to directives of the Swedish Parliament and Governmentto reduce poverty in the world, a task that requires cooperation and persistence.Through development cooperation, Sweden assists countries in Africa, Asia,Europe and Latin America. Each country is responsible for its own development.Sida provides resources and develops knowledge, skills and expertise.This increases the world’s prosperity.Women’s EconomicEmpowerment: Scopefor Sida’s EngagementThis working paper attempts to define women’s economic empowerment, its rationale, and thescope of work in the context of Sida’s engagement.Sida defines women’s economic empowerment as the process which enables women to makestrategic life choices. Women’s economic empowerment can only be achieved through equal accessto and control over critical economic resources and opportunities, and the elimination of structuralgender inequalities in the labor market including a better sharing of paid and unpaid work betweenmen and women.This paper recommends specific interventions to directly increase women’s access andcontrol of economic resources in the areas of entrepreneurship and private sector development(key area 1); land and property (key area 2); labor markets and decent work (key area 3). It alsorecommends interventions which tackle the causes of women’s economic discrimination byaddressing women’s unpaid work and family responsibilities (key area 4); human capital (key area5); social protection services (key area 6); and agriculture and rural development (key area 7).SWEDISH INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION AGENCYAddress: SE-105 25 Stockholm, Sweden.Visiting address: Valhallavägen 199.Phone: +46 (0)8-698 50 00. Fax: +46 (0)8-20 88 64.www.sida.se sida@sida.se